Fill in the blank!

I thought . . . God he's in great shape . . . I wondered how often he works out . . . and what he had planned to be doing later that evening . . . .

My first DS was a real SOB. The let us off the bus at Ft. Polk at the reception center and immediately after coming to attention, we were in the front lean and rest position in pea gravel. We stayed there for what seamed like forever. Then, we were herded to a warehouse where we lost our hair and then, hurried to another building where we drew our uniforms. Those were the good times. Then I was put on a truck and sent to E-3-2 in North Fort Polk, next door to Tigerland. There we were met by SFC Soto, I will never forget that man's name. My platoon was led by Sgt. Doss, never forget that name either. We were literally kicked, slapped, punched, and one NCO even used a riding crop to wake up those who napped during training. We ran 3 miles before breakfast which was served at 0600 and training began at 0700 and lasted until 1800 when were ate evening chow. This went on for 9 weeks, then I went to Tigerland for another 9 weeks of the same. After 18 weeks at Ft. Polk, I was a lean, mean, fighting machine. That is why Ft. Polk had the fewest casualties of any training post in Vietnam. The military training today is pussified compared to 50 years ago. We did not have the equipment or protection soldiers have today. Trust me, I am glad to see soldiers get protection so they can come home to their families. But, the training needs to be tougher because war is hell.

Ok, Sommer here we go lol you asked for this lol

I was my own worse enemy in Basic Training. I was an Army Brat, my father had been a Drill Sergeant at Fort Knox and I remembered how they did the trainees back then and also the all the DI's sitting around later on or on one of those end of cycle breaks when they would live it up cooking out drinking beer and telling their stories about the previous cycle antics they went thru or did. So me and my smart ass found it to be re- visiting their tales, and had a hard time not laughing or smiliing. We all know one of the worse things you could do would be to smile or laugh when a DI was chewing on a piece of your butt or your buddy next to you. So I was the frequent example of their rath and anger, doiing push ups, crawling under the old WWII barracks we stayed in. But I did survive and pretty well after all, I made E2 coming out of Basic and E3 out of AIT. So I guess I can say, I learned to come around pretty damn quick. I will always remember my Drill Sergeants, SSG Santos and SSG Anderson, B-2-1, Fort Jackson, 1973.

I'm gonna die here. We had just run, with two seabags across the island to 3rd Bn. squad bay and this giant black DI had me by the windpipe, choked out, off the ground, asking me "Are you tired ,puke?"

My initial reaction was; OK, you signed up for it, now here we go. In 1979 things were very different from what they are today. Wall to wall counseling was still the big thing, but remember that this was a few years after our "peace with honor" agreement with Hanoi and North Vietnam. I had to repeat BCT when I returned to active duty in 1999 things were completely different. My reaction then was are they for real? No physical intimidation, no cursing, no physical contact, what did they do to my Army?

I don't actually remember, that day is a bit of a blur... But I have the pictures to prove he was there...


(At Navy OCS, you don't actually meet your DI and Chief until about day 4)

Can I keep a straight face long enough so he will not notice I am laugh on the inside that someone else is getting yelled at! This was 10 minutes after we were thrown off the bus with all our gear and the DS were pouring people stuff out of their duffle bags spreading it all over the place!!

"Home at last!"